its brow put forth a horn
by modulegirl
Summary: A mythical beast in a mythical place. Rating for minor language. Complete.
1. Part One

This is the first time I've posted here. I usually write Kenneth/Ian slash. This isn't slash. I'm not sure what it is; it just kind of happened. I started with a single opening sentence and let it come. I had no idea how it would end and if you're suprised when you get there, believe me, I was shocked.  
  
I hope you like it.  
  
Title: ...it's brow put forth a horn  
  
Author: modulegirl  
  
Started: 6/11/2  
  
Finished: 6/16/2  
  
Rating: PG (just a wee bit of language)  
  
Disclaimer: They aren't mine and I'm being much kinder than I usually am so no one should complain too much:-)  
  
The title comes from a line in Ranier Maria Rilke's poem This Is The Creature. I took inspiration from a variety of sources particularly Theodore Sturgeon's The Silken Swift.  
  
It hasn't been beta'd so please bear with any gross errors.  
  
  
  
…its brow put forth a horn  
  
A unicorn had been spotted in the woods of Central Park.  
  
Kenneth Irons had never set much store in the legend of the unicorn but neither had he discounted it out of hand. After all, he'd once worn the Witchblade. He knew that anything was possible.  
  
Now, as he reviewed the accounts of several highly credible witnesses, he found himself cautiously intrigued.  
  
He sat in his office, directly beneath the penthouse on the top floor of Vorschlag's corporate headquarters. His fingers steepled before him, he watched a stupidly incredulous VCN reporter interview a young woman, the only witness thus far willing to go on camera with her incredible story.  
  
She was no more than thirty, a paralegal for one of the big firms on Wall Street. There was a certain plainness about her and Kenneth noted she wore no ring on her left hand. Still, there was something that shone out from her features as if she'd been transfigured by her brief glimpse of the most mythic creature in the world. Something had made her unobtrusively beautiful and she was completely unaware of it.  
  
"Just tell me the story in your own words," the reporter said off-camera.  
  
She smiled nervously, her eyes darting to the camera and then back to the reporter off to one side. "I, uh, I was walking the path down to the pond, the way I usually take Fritz, my dachshund," she said softly, obviously embarrassed to be speaking of something so fantastic. "Fritz started barking and slipped his leash. He hasn't done that in years. He ran off up a slope and disappeared into the trees. I took off after him. And then he stopped barking." She put her hand to her chest. "I thought, 'Oh, no, he's had a heart attack.' He's fifteen. So I was imagining all kinds of things I might see."  
  
The woman stopped, overcome by emotion. Off camera, the reporter, in a patently insincere tone of voice, assured her it was all right and she didn't need to continue until she was ready.  
  
She nodded and looked down at her hands twisting in her lap. "When I got to the top of the slope and pushed through a bush, I just stopped. There was a small clearing. Standing right there in the middle was Fritz and - and - well, it was a unicorn." She blushed and laughed. "Really. I know it sounds crazy but it's true. It was just standing there looking at Fritz who was there on the ground in front of it."  
  
"Can you describe the unicorn?" asked the reporter.  
  
"Um, not really. It's just… well, words couldn't ever do it justice. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Like the most beautiful horse you've ever seen but so much more so that you couldn't call it horse-like at all. It was silver colored... but not. It was every color and no color at all. And the horn, the horn was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I can't describe it. I don't have the words to even begin." She smiled and looked down again. "I know how it sounds." She looked up at the reporter, her brow furrowing into a frown. "Nothing I say can make it sound real, because it's a unicorn and unicorns aren't real, right? If unicorns don't exist then I can't have seen one in Central Park. But unicorns do exist. Or that one did. I know because of what happened to my dog."  
  
Gentle and soothing, the reporter said, "Why don't you tell me about what happened?"  
  
She took a deep breath and continued. "Well, there in front of the unicorn, like I said, Fritz just stood there looking up at it. Then the unicorn turned its head and it looked right at me. Its eyes were the most beautiful violet color and so wise but sad, too. So sad." She paused a moment, remembering. "Then it looked down at Fritz and lowered its head until it touched Fritz'."  
  
She wiped at tears that had started down her cheeks. "Fritz shook his head and sneezed and then the unicorn was just gone. I barely saw its tail as it ran through the brush and disappeared. Then Fritzie, he ran to me. Like a puppy. When I picked him up, I saw that the white on his muzzle was gone. His cataracts too. His teeth were white and sharp. His legs weren't stiff and he wiggled in my arms instead of just sitting there like he's done for so long. He doesn't have that old dog smell anymore. I took him to my vet who's been seeing Fritz for seven years and he said he's never seen anything like it. He told me that if he didn't know any better he'd swear Fritz was a two-year old dog. He almost wouldn't believe it was Fritz but the scar from an operation three years ago was still there on his tummy. The unicorn made Fritzie young again. Or something. The fact is, my dog was dying of old age and now he's not. The unicorn did that," she said, defiant at last, almost as if by saying it out loud she could finally believe that it had really happened.  
  
"Pause."  
  
Kenneth sat back and looked at the still picture of the young woman on the screen.  
  
"What do you think?" he asked, without turning his head.  
  
After a moment's consideration, Ian Nottingham spoke carefully. "I think the young lady believes the story she's telling."  
  
"Then you don't think she actually saw a unicorn. But how then does one explain the dog?" Kenneth countered, looking up and slightly back at the black-clad shadow that hovered behind his right shoulder.  
  
Ian's brown eyes flicked to the woman on the screen. "I cannot."  
  
Kenneth smiled and looked back at the view screen. "I'm intrigued. A unicorn. And the power to make what it touches young again." Kenneth thought of his ninety-six years and the eventuality that he would begin to age one day when the Witchblade's influence waned. Even the touch of a unicorn might prove easier to procure than the blood of the current Wielder.  
  
He raised a languid hand and pressed the power button on the television remote. The picture on the screen winked out, replaced by a random digital image from his vast art collection.  
  
"I want to know if there is truly a unicorn in Central Park, prosaic as that might be. If it exists, I have every confidence that you will find it, Ian."  
  
Chuckling at the astonishment on Ian's face, Kenneth stood up and walked to the window that looked out over most of Manhattan. "Leave off your regular surveillance duties. Spend that time in the Park." His voice turned hard when he issued his order. "Find it."  
  
Ian ducked his head and rounded the desk, striding out the doors and leaving only the hiss of their closing in his wake. 


	2. Part Two

~WB~  
  
Lonnie had been walking a long time. She was pretty sure she was lost. I don't know how you get this lost in Central Park, though, she thought to herself.  
  
Fritz gamboled and danced around her like a puppy. He ran forward into the underbrush and then crashed back out, stopping just short of her reach and panting his big doggie grin. When she reached down to grab him, he scampered away, leading her further into the thickets. If she hadn't known better, she'd have thought that he was leading her somewhere.  
  
Of course, this was a dog that had been a foot from death's door two weeks ago so she might be a little more willing to suspend disbelief than she had once been. She still shuddered to think of it. Ben, her vet, had warned her that the time was getting really close when she'd have to start thinking about letting Fritz go. Fifteen years he'd been a part of her life. Half her life. She'd taken an apartment rather than leave him with her folks so she could live in a dorm while she went to school. Then she'd brought him to New York when everyone told her that finding a place that would take a dog would be next to impossible. They were right. It was next to impossible but only right next because she'd done it. A tiny studio that was all charm and no closets but the landlord liked the look of her dog.  
  
Seven years they'd been living in Manhattan. They took long walks and watched the city change with the seasons and the political parties. She didn't have much of a social life but she had a nodding acquaintance with most of the dog people on her route and in her neighborhood. It was enough but it all would have ended if Fritz hadn't met up with the unicorn.  
  
She smiled and wondered if she would live long enough to ever be able to accept that she had actually seen a unicorn. She'd gone through the prerequisite unicorn phase in her adolescence and still had a shelf of figurines received as Christmas and birthday presents. It looked more like a collection of deformed horses because most of the horns had cracked off in the periodic moves she'd made during college. They didn't do the real thing any justice at all.  
  
She'd told the condescending reporter from VCN that she wasn't crazy but sometimes she wondered if she had protested too much. Then she'd look at her dog and the knowledge that something so wonderful and magical actually existed would fill her heart with warmth and happiness. She thought if this was crazy then it wasn't such a bad place to be.  
  
Up ahead, Fritzie began to bark, a sharp yapping that she was still getting used to after years of mellow silence.  
  
She pushed through the brambles and stepped out into a clearing a lot like the one where she'd seen the unicorn. Instead of a creature of myth and legend, however, she found a scary guy all in black holding her dog.  
  
"Shit!" she whispered, startled to say the least and stumble back in alarm.  
  
The scary guy bent over and carefully set Fritzie down on the ground. The dog sat for a minute considering his new acquaintance with that stupid dachsy grin and then galloped to her side. He sat down on one hip and panted happily, his tongue lolling out one side of his mouth.  
  
Lonnie just looked at him. Fritzie wasn't the friendliest dog in the world and that was her fault. She'd never socialized him well because she rarely socialized herself. Consequently, she spent a lot of time pulling him out of the range of grabbing toddlers and over-friendly kids of all ages. And Fritzie didn't like men much at all. She thought it might have to do with the timbre of their voices so different from hers and her few female friends. And now the stupid mutt had just let Big Scary Dude pass muster based on a scratch behind the ear?  
  
She looked up at the guy. All in black? In August? In New York? With gloves? And a hat? Lonnie thought she'd seen some seriously weird people in Times Square but this guy just might have taken the cake.  
  
He stood there with his head bowed looking at the grass between his spread feet, his hands tucked behind his back.  
  
"I think you are lost," he said.  
  
His voice was completely at odds with his goth wanna-be look. Soft and gentle and so deferential. Like honey, she thought, warm honey. The thought startled her. She wasn't given to thinking such things about strange men. Hell, she wasn't given to thinking such things about men she'd known the whole seven years she'd lived in New York.  
  
"I think maybe I am," she replied cautiously.  
  
"You've come within fifty yards of the pond at least twice in the last hour."  
  
"Then, yes, I would say I am definitely lost." She looked down at Fritzie. "Thanks a lot," she whispered, sotto voce. The dog looked up at her and let his tongue loll out the other side of his mouth.  
  
Lonnie looked back up at the man in black. Somehow, he wasn't all that scary anymore. She wasn't sure if it was his voice or the fact that her dog liked him or that he hadn't moved an inch in her direction.  
  
"Um, could you maybe tell me how to get to the pond, then?"  
  
Without raising his head, he looked up. Even from across the clearing, Lonnie could see chocolate brown eyes staring at her with an intensity that she thought should have knocked her over.  
  
"Have you found what you seek?" he asked.  
  
"What?" She looked down at Fritz. "Well, you caught Fritz so, yeah, I guess so?"  
  
She watched him lower his eyes and even through his dark beard she could see his jaw clench.  
  
"You seek the unicorn, don't you?"  
  
Lonnie was speechless for a moment then the words came out in a rush. "How did you know about that? Have you seen it? How did you know I'd seen it?"  
  
He waited until she ran out of steam before he spoke again.  
  
"My employer saw your interview with the VCN reporter. He was intrigued. I am searching for it on his behalf. I came upon you in the woods and assumed that that was what you were doing."  
  
He looked up again and then back down to the grass.  
  
Softly, he asked, "Do you not wish to see it again?"  
  
Lonnie thought a moment. "I don't think it had occurred to me to go looking for it again. The one time was enough of a gift." She stooped and wrapped her hands around her dog's chest. Standing, she brought him close to her chest and let him wiggle in her arms and lick her face. "And it gave me Fritz back. I didn't ask for it but it did."  
  
She dipped her face into the dog's wet kisses, letting him wash away the happy tears she cried for his new life and the presence of a unicorn in the world.  
  
Taking a deep breath, she pulled Fritz away from her face and said, "Why do you want to find it?"  
  
"My ma -- my employer would like to confirm its existence. He was impressed with the effect its touch had on your dog."  
  
"You mean making Fritz young again or extending his life or whatever it was the unicorn did?"  
  
The man nodded, his eyes glued to the ground.  
  
"He wants it to do the same for him?"  
  
Again he nodded.  
  
Lonnie sighed. "I wish he wouldn't." When the man looked up she saw hurt and loss deep in his eyes and suddenly understood. "Not that I wish anything bad on your boss," she said hastily. "I'm sure he deserves to live another hundred years but… the unicorn looked so sad. So lonely. Like maybe it had been chased for so long that it didn't have very many places left to go. You know what I mean?" She wasn't satisfied with her explanation but knew that he would have had to see the unicorn before he could really understand.  
  
The man seemed to consider a moment and then nodded once abruptly. He pulled a hand out from behind his back and gestured to his left. "Would you like me to lead you out to the pond?"  
  
Trusting him as she knew she should never trust really strange men she met in the woods of Central Park, she smiled and said, "Sure."  
  
He turned on his heel and strode across the clearing and into the bushes. Lonnie followed, holding onto Fritz. After the bright sunlight in the clearing, the man in front of her seemed to disappear into the deep cool shadows. Once her eyes adjusted, she thought he looked so out of place, so urban in this distinctly un-urban setting yet he moved with an eerie silence and a kind of patience. Rather than just pushing branches aside, he almost seemed to negotiate with them, moving them out of his way and settling them back in place when he had passed. And still, he moved so much faster than she possibly could. She struggled to keep up. 


	3. Part Three

~WB~  
  
"Danny, tell me again what we're doing here?"  
  
"Aw, c'mon, Pez. You know, you wanted to spend your first day off in two weeks on a picnic with your favorite god-son."  
  
Sara turned her head against the blanket she had stretched herself across. Her hair, pulled into a high ponytail, spread out above her. She wore a skimpy tank top and cutoff jeans determined to make the most of her time in the sun. She pulled at her mirrored sunglasses, bringing them halfway down her nose even as she raised her eyebrow in the patented Pezzini manner.  
  
"He's my only god-son and however much Mikey might like me, Danny, Tammy is never going to think I'm so cool." She pushed the sunglasses back up and turned her face back to the sun. "She thinks I'm going to get you killed or that I'm after your hot bod."  
  
Danny looked down at his bare, wiry legs and arms, pink from the sun. "You mean, you're not?" he asked, his voice hilariously incredulous.  
  
Sara tried not to laugh but ended up blowing a big raspberry instead. She turned over on her blanket and extended her arms, palms up, down her body. Closing her eyes, she thought to herself that she shouldn't go to sleep in the sun and that she was just going to rest for a minute. The heat on her skin made her so comfortable she slipped away in just seconds.  
  
The Witchblade started to itch on her wrist at the same moment she heard Danny whisper, "Holy shit."  
  
Since Danny wasn't given to gratuitous swearing despite all of the time he spent with her and her sailor's mouth, Sara sat up quickly. She looked at Danny, who stood on the blanket looking across the pond. She followed his line of sight and gasped, scrambling to her feet herself.  
  
Danny asked, "Isn't that…?"  
  
Sara nodded though Danny wasn't looking at her. "Yeah. What the hell is he doing here?"  
  
Nottingham was standing on the edge of the copse of trees on the other side of the pond. Behind him, she could hear a small dog's yap and the crash of another person through the undergrowth. She watched him raise his head and look across the water, meeting her eyes and then dropping his head again.  
  
Out of the shadows, a young woman appeared with a squirmy dachshund in her arms. Nottingham extended a gloved hand and she took it in hers and stepped over the last of the brush and into the sun.  
  
The woman released his hand and, oblivious to their audience, turned and spoke to him for a moment.  
  
Nottingham dipped his head in a nod and again flicked his eyes in Sara's direction. Then he indicated the direction of the path to more populated areas of the park; the woman put down her dog and began walking, Nottingham following her the same way he followed Irons, half a step behind to her right, an intimidating shadow. That young woman was probably the safest person in New York City, much less Central Park, right now, Sara reflected. She thought that was funny considering how dangerous she knew Nottingham to be but his attitude toward the woman was not one of menace but solicitous protection.  
  
She and Danny watched Nottingham follow the woman to the paths and disappear over a rise.  
  
"What the hell?" she said to no one in particular as she looked at the spot where they rounded a tree and disappeared.  
  
"Was he following you?" Danny asked. Sara knew Danny wished she share more about her sudden and disturbing acquaintance with Kenneth Irons and his bodyguard, but there were things Sara couldn't share, even with her partner. Mostly because she didn't have the slightest idea what she could say that wouldn't make it sound like she needed to be admitted to Bellevue Psychiatric. She knew he worried and as unnecessary as it was, it made her feel safe knowing that someone cared enough to look out after her.  
  
She looked at him and shook her head. "I don't think so," she said. "But I sure would like to know what he was doing here and who that woman was." She didn't think the woman was in any danger from Nottingham but Sara had been wearing the Witchblade long enough to know that everything was connected.  
  
~WB~  
  
"Well?"  
  
Ian closed his eyes. He didn't want to tell Irons what he had found, especially after the conversation he'd had with the woman, but he had no choice.  
  
"I found traces of the unicorn and tracked it to the spring where it drinks. I did not see it today but there is no mistaking the place."  
  
"How so?"  
  
Ian thought about the beauty of that place. He remembered reading somewhere at some point in his studies into the arcane and obscure that the place where a unicorn drinks becomes a sacred place, a place of peace and harmony. He had left off tracking the woman, who was hopelessly lost, wandering in circles and enjoying the game of tag her dog led her on, and followed the shining fewmets that marked the regular trail of the unicorn. Coming up over the bank of the spring, struck by the beauty contained in this shallow bowl in the earth, Ian might have remained motionless for seconds or hours.  
  
Sunlight filtered through brilliant green leaf cover, dappling the clear, clean pool of water. Birch, maple, oak, a lonely elm, straight trunks framed the border of the clearing. The spring flowed from a boulder at one edge of the pool, trickling down over moss and lichen covered steps to fall into the sparkling water with a soothing, asymmetrical melody. Short- cropped grass, greener than even Sara's eyes, grew down to the very edge of the sandy bank. Birds and rabbits, even a skunk, meandered about the lawn and went along on their business without the slightest concern for the sudden stranger in their midst. Not oblivious because several of the rabbits looked up from their grazing and twitched their noses in Ian's direction then went back to chewing the heads off of well-behaved dandelions, simply unconcerned. Perched on top of the boulder, a family of foxes, a vixen and her half-grown kits, watched the scene with contentment but no malice or hunger. A robin, its breast as deeply red as a rose, lighted on a branch close to Ian's head and greeted him with a friendly song.  
  
The air seemed cleaner there and the water beckoned to him in the heat of the day. Removing his left glove, he dipped his hand into the cool water, bringing the water to his lips and drinking deep. It had been the most refreshing drink he had ever taken, clean and crisp, utterly pure. Unable to resist, he brought up another handful of water and wet his face, drawing his hand across his brow and down his face, pulling his fingers over his dripping beard. For one all too brief moment in his life, Ian had known peace and glimpsed freedom.  
  
"Ian?"  
  
Impatience in his master's tone drew Ian out of his reverie. He sighed and said, "The place was like no other on earth. If I had not sought a unicorn, I would still have known what I was seeing."  
  
"I see."  
  
He listened as Irons pushed his chair back and stood. Ian counted steps as Irons crossed his office to the window where he could see the green trees of the park and even catch a glimpse of grass and open space. Ian knew his master's stance, bent slightly at the waist, his hands on the sill as he leaned toward the glass, surveying the city and the endless lives over which he had so much influence.  
  
"Take me there."  
  
Startled, Ian looked up. "Sir?"  
  
"A unicorn, Ian. Imagine the power. It will be mine." Irons turned and faced Ian. "Tonight."  
  
Ian swallowed the sudden lump in his throat and simply nodded. 


	4. Part Four

~WB~  
  
Sara looked at the Witchblade as it swirled on her wrist. Awakened out of a fitful sleep, she lay on the sweaty sheets and cursed her foolhardy rejection of Tammy's offer of sun-block earlier this morning.  
  
She had burned. Bad. Across her chest and shoulders and down her legs. The tops of her feet even. Her nose and cheeks were pink when she got home and now in the sticky heat of the night, she imagined she could see them shining bright red like Rudolph's nose. She'd slathered herself in Noxzeema and vainly searched for a position that minimized contact with her skin.  
  
And now the damned Witchblade had awakened her just when she'd finally dropped off in spite of the sting of her shoulders against the mattress.  
  
Giving up sleep for a lost cause, Sara sat up and looked at the bracelet and the restless red stone. Concentrating, she fell into a vision. Nottingham and Irons. Traipsing through the woods.  
  
She snapped her eyes open. What the hell? Nottingham she could almost see in the woods, even in his goth black; he just seemed like he'd disappear there as he did in the city. But Irons? The last place she'd expect to see him was in khakis, following the trail his bodyguard blazed ahead of him.  
  
This had something to do with Nottingham's appearance in the park today. Sara was willing to bet her next paycheck on it. Who was that woman and what did she have to do with it?  
  
On a hunch, Sara pulled on the shorts she'd worn that day and hissed as she drew on a tank-top, ditching the thought of a bra that would only irritate the burn on her chest and back. She padded into the bathroom and turned on the light. Groaning, she reached for more Noxzeema and slathered it over her cheeks and across her nose. A gingerly pulled ponytail kept her thick hair out of her face and off of her burned shoulders. As ready as she thought she could possibly be, Sara headed for the door, her bike and Central Park.  
  
~WB~  
  
Lonnie had waited and waited and waited for Fritzie to just shut up.  
  
When they got home, he'd started digging at the doorframe and whining, punctuating his protests with an occasional sharp bark. As the sun set his whining only increased. Concerned, she called Ben who had seemed glad to hear from her. He assured her that Fritz was most likely fine and just wanted to go for a walk. They continued talking for some time after that and the call had ended with his request to take her to dinner the next night. Surprised but very pleased, she'd accepted.  
  
Thinking of him, she'd been able to ignore Fritz for an hour or so. Finally, she'd given in and clicked his leash onto his collar and let herself be dragged across the street and into the park by her twelve- pound dog.  
  
She knew what he wanted as soon as he headed into the trees. She dug in her heels and feeling not the least bit silly told Fritz in no uncertain terms that she was not going to chase him all over the woods again. She explained that the man in black had been very nice and helpful but he had also been quite scary for several minutes. She had no illusions about the attitudes of the majority of the park's after dark denizens; she knew that she could not count on being so fortunate again and she wasn't going to push her luck.  
  
Fritz looked at her and back into the trees and then back at her again. When Lonnie tugged at the leash, pulling in the direction of home, Fritz barked once and then slipped the leash, dashing into the woods.  
  
Cursing, Lonnie threw up her hands. Yelling that come morning they were going shopping for a harness he couldn't slip, she followed Fritz into the woods.  
  
~WB~  
  
Sara parked her bike and checked for her gun tucked into the back of her shorts. She trotted out onto the grass and made her way to the pond where she had spent the day with her partner's family.  
  
It had been a nice day and Tammy wasn't as bad as she'd kidded Danny. Tammy just felt a natural jealousy toward a woman who spent more time with her husband than she ever would. Sara didn't blame her; she probably knew Danny better than Tammy did many ways. But Sara knew only her partner and had tried to explain that to Tammy before. The real saving grace in their relationship was Mikey, who adored his Thara. A baby lisp had disappeared but the name remained and since it meant her and only her, Sara wore it like the badge of honor it was. Spending time with the Woos, here in the park or at their house for holidays and special occasions, reminded Sara in a very good way of what she became a cop to protect.  
  
When she rounded the bend in the path that led, she was surprised to see Danny and Mikey wandering around in the grass, staring at the ground by the light of the mostly full moon.  
  
"Hey," she called.  
  
Danny looked up and waved. Mikey, intent on the grass beneath his feet, ignored her completely.  
  
She came across the lawn and stopped at Danny's side as he watched his son. They both watched him for a moment, head bowed as he stared at the ground, then struck by the similarity, Sara said, "Been letting Nottingham give him lessons, huh?"  
  
Danny laughed and shook his head. "No, he left a Pokemon or something and absolutely would not shut up about it until I brought him out here to look for it. Tammy was going nuts."  
  
As he spoke, Mike bent over and picked something out from between the blades of grass and held it up. His face broke into a wide, largely toothless grin as he held up a cheap plastic toy from some fast food restaurant's kid's meal.  
  
Sara turned around toward the trees to hide her own grin as she whispered to Danny, "You know you two let him ride roughshod over you, right?"  
  
Danny beckoned to his son and picked him up. "Yeah," he said as he tousled Mikey's hair and pulled him close. "But he's a good boy, aren't ya, kid?"  
  
Sleepy now, Mikey nodded and put his head to his father's shoulder. Danny hitched his son's small body over his hip and said, "Guess we need to be getting home to Mama before she calls the cops out on us."  
  
Suddenly, Mikey sat up and pointed, sleep forgotten. "Lookit!" he shouted.  
  
Sara and Danny turned and stared.  
  
Shimmering like a dream, a unicorn stood in the moonlight. The color of a spider's web, Sara thought, the only way she could describe the unicorn's coat to her own satisfaction. It turned its head at Mike's childish shout. Its dark eyes shone and seemed to beckon.  
  
Mike squirmed in Danny's arms and, utterly stunned, Danny let him slide out of his embrace. Entranced, they both watched Mike trot in the direction of the trees, intent on the unicorn.  
  
The unicorn watched Mikey advance and then looked at Sara. The Witchblade on her wrist awoke and she felt an insistent warmth spread at the speed of thought throughout her entire body.  
  
Then the unicorn shook its head and the long mane against its neck danced among moonbeams. It turned and leapt into the brush and was gone in an instant.  
  
Once it was gone, the spell seemed to break. Danny shouted to his son, who continued to the edge of the trees and disappeared into the shadows. Glancing at one another, unable to mention the fantastic sight they'd just witnessed, they nodded and headed into the woods after Mike. 


	5. Part Five

~WB~  
  
Kenneth didn't like nature. He couldn't exert his will and dominate it to his satisfaction so he tended to ignore it as something beneath his attention.  
  
Right now, though, he could not ignore the slender branches that slapped at his face or tugged at his jacket. He started at the hoot of an owl behind him and the answering movement of some small creature on the ground below, and felt instantly foolish. Looking up, he watched Ian move soundlessly through the undergrowth, wholly at one with his surroundings, blazing a trail for Kenneth to follow. He led the way with no hesitation though Kenneth knew for a fact that Ian had spent almost no time in Central Park before this day and this night.  
  
Kenneth realized that he was somewhat jealous of Ian's ease in this situation. His bodyguard's extensive martial training had included a deep- seated philosophical base, a philosophy that encouraged him to become a part of his environment rather than a creature at odds with it as Kenneth was. Kenneth knew that it was a part of Ian's resounding success as an assassin and bodyguard and weapon; he disappeared and no one really saw him as he slipped away, forgetting him as a natural part of the world no more memorable than a tree or a rock.  
  
It also meant that Ian, without meaning to, made Kenneth look extremely foolish, which in turn made Kenneth quite testy.  
  
"Ian, how much further?" he called, trying to keep a disturbing tendency to whine out of his voice.  
  
Ian stopped and turned around.  
  
"Not much farther."  
  
"Are you leading me in circles?" Kenneth asked, half-amused.  
  
Ian's eyes went wide beneath his hood. "No, sir," he replied.  
  
Kenneth chuckled at the edge of fear in his bodyguard's voice and felt much better. "I was joking, Ian." Having caught his breath, Kenneth waved in Ian's direction and by implication in the direction of the unicorn's spring.  
  
"Are you sure you wouldn't like me to carry the bridle?" Ian asked solicitously, though he visibly shuddered at the thought of touching the thing.  
  
Kenneth shook his head and looked down at the heavy bridle he carried in both hands. It was a thing of beauty, this bridle: woven of gold and a maiden's hair, it was an acquisition that Kenneth had almost forgotten about until he'd seen the videotape earlier this morning. The dealer had assured him it had been fabricated for the express purpose of capturing a unicorn; Kenneth had not been particularly impressed with the story but since he had more money than he knew what to do with, he bought it, catalogued it and promptly put it out of his mind until today. After all, one never knew when one might actually need to catch a unicorn. Kenneth did believe in being prepared for any eventuality, no matter how far-fetched.  
  
"No, it's fine."  
  
Ian nodded and, turning back to his task, began moving forward again.  
  
~WB~  
  
Lonnie was sure Fritz was leading her somewhere. There was no playful tag and run in the dachshund's demeanor tonight. He pushed into the bushes and waited for Lonnie, barking to let her knew where he was if he felt she wandered too far astray. When she caught up, he simply moved on again.  
  
Feeling far more foolish for following him through the woods where no one could see her than she had felt talking to him on the path where lovers and other denizens of the night had watched her with varying degrees of amusement, Lonnie pushed forward once more and stepped out onto the softest patch of grass she had ever felt beneath her tired and aching feet.  
  
"Holy…" she whispered, looking about her, knowing instantly that this was a place that the unicorn had touched. There could be only a very few such places on earth and she had been fortunate enough to find herself led to it.  
  
As she stood staring at the clearing, bathed in silver moonlight, glowing with some unnamable magic, Fritz came and sat down on her feet. Tearing her eyes away from the sight before her she looked down at her dog, who in turn looked up, panting happily with his tongue lolling out of the corner of his mouth and halfway down his neck.  
  
"Thank you," Lonnie whispered. Then she looked up and drank in the peace and beauty like a draught of the purest water. The place waited with a gentle expectancy that she didn't want to disturb, so she crossed her ankles and dropped to the ground, pulled her dog into her lap and happily waited for the unicorn to appear.  
  
~WB~  
  
Sara could hear Mikey giggling in the bushes just ahead of them and marveled at the little squirt's ability to stay just beyond their reach. She grinned listening to Danny swear as another branch slapped his face and tangled in his long, fine hair. She'd been a bad influence on him these many years because he was using language now that she'd never heard him use for any reason whatsoever.  
  
Neither of them spoke of the sight that had led Mikey into the woods and they after him. Sara understood that the Witchblade had brought her here to see this and that Danny's presence with Mike was not a mere coincidence, though she resented the Witchblade's use of Danny's boy as bait in order to get her to do what it wanted.  
  
Up ahead, Mike laughed out loud, a tinkly, magical sound that only a child could produce when presented with a great wonder. Pushing through the last of the brush and brambles, Sara stepped free and looking down swiped at the sweat that streaked through the smear of Noxzeema across her nose and cheeks. Behind her, she heard Danny step clear and whisper, "Oh, my."  
  
Amused that even his new-found swearing skills had failed him, Sara looked up and gasped.  
  
They stood in a clearing like nothing Sara had ever imagined in her life. On the other side of a pool of water that shimmered like quicksilver in the moonlight filtering through the trees, Sara recognized the young woman she'd seen with Nottingham earlier in the day. She sat on the grassy knoll, cross-legged with her dog in her lap. She looked amazingly happy and waved without any apparent surprise at Sara and Danny and Mikey, who toddled in her direction, seemingly intent on the dog in her lap.  
  
Sara, uncharacteristically unconcerned about Mikey's safety with a stranger and her equally strange dog, looked around in wonder at the water and the spring and the animals that lined the edge of the clearing. As she watched a rabbit appeared over the rise to her right and hopped forward, unconcerned by her presence. It slipped up to the water's edge and drank deep, ears back at ease with its surroundings.  
  
Danny moved up to stand beside her, watching his son absently as he took in the sight of the clearing.  
  
"What is it, Sara?" he asked.  
  
Sara shook her head. She had an idea but the Witchblade was silent on her wrist.  
  
Unwilling to say what she thought out loud, she said, "I dunno, Danny, but it's something special, I'll tell you that."  
  
"Why not tell me something I didn't already know, partner?" Danny teased. She looked at him and they grinned, acknowledging for the first time between themselves the unicorn and its undeniable existence. It was the only thing that could explain this place, pure and peaceful.  
  
Danny tapped her arm and motioned toward the woman who was beckoning to them as she welcomed Mikey and let him pet her dog. They ambled the short distance across the clearing and introduced themselves.  
  
"My name is Lonnie," said the woman as she shook Danny's hand and then Sara's. "Have you seen it too?"  
  
Without saying anything, they both nodded and all three smiled shyly, enjoying the secret they shared, a secret that they felt no need to voice.  
  
Lonnie sighed and waved her arm, taking in the pool and the trees and the grass and the waiting animals with her gesture. "They all seem to be waiting," she said. "I was waiting too."  
  
Mikey tugged at his dad's pants and both of the women looked down with him at the little boy, who looked up with wonder and a belief that his father had an acceptable answer for every question he could possibly ask. "Will he come back, Daddy?" Mike asked simply.  
  
"I don't know, Mike." Danny dropped into a squat and put his hand to his son's small shoulder as they both looked at the pool. "I think we can wait for a while, though, don't you? Just in case?"  
  
Mike nodded gravely and clambered into his father's lap when Danny sat down on the ground and stretched his legs out.  
  
Sara turned to Lonnie. "I saw you this afternoon." Lonnie just frowned. "You were with Nottingham at the edge of the trees."  
  
"Nottingham?" Lonnie asked. Comprehension crossed her face and she smiled. "Oh, you mean Big, Scary Dude."  
  
Sara laughed at the straightforward and very accurate description. "Yeah, that's him."  
  
"I never got his name. He was very nice, strange but nice; found me in the woods, got me unlost and escorted me back to my apartment. Not very scary, I guess, but the name stuck." She looked at Sara quizzically. "What?"  
  
Sara, who had been staring off into space, putting two and two together and coming up with Kenneth Irons no matter how she did the math, shook her head clear and said, "Oh, nothing. I've just never heard Nottingham described as 'nice'. Big, scary, strange… yes. But never 'nice'. Takes a minute to get used to."  
  
"Well, he was. Nice, I mean. He said he was looking for the unicorn too." She blushed at what she had finally said aloud. "Said his boss wanted him to find it." She touched Sara's arm and said, "What is it? There's something wrong."  
  
Sara shook her head, aware that her lie wasn't really working. Sighing, she said, "I know his boss and believe me, the last thing in the world we want is for Kenneth Irons to get his hands on a unicorn."  
  
Lonnie gasped. "Kenneth Irons? Oh, my." She seemed to be rendered speechless by her near brush with fame and fortune. Sara grimaced at the memory of her own encounters with Nottingham's employer. For all his bizarre behavior, at least Nottingham was a lot easier to take in large or small doses.  
  
She turned around and forgot the unpleasantness that was Kenneth Irons and smiled at the sight of Danny and Mike, lying back on the grass as Danny pointed out his limited knowledge of the constellations and proceeded to spin some very tall tales about the star maps that he was making up for his son. 


	6. Part Six

~WB~  
  
Ian could hear them talking and laughing a hundred yards out. Sara, her partner, Danny Woo, a child, Woo's son he would guess, and Lonnie, the woman with the dog.  
  
He stopped abruptly and heard Irons trundling along behind him. His master, head down and completely unaware that Ian had stopped, bumped right into his back.  
  
"Ian!" His name sounded like a curse coming from Irons like that but he was accustomed to the sound and it didn't hurt much anymore.  
  
"Sara is there," he whispered.  
  
"Where?"  
  
Ian sometimes wondered how someone so very single-minded in his pursuit of that which he desired managed to remember to breathe or eat or even pee when it was called for.  
  
"Sara is in the unicorn clearing," Ian said carefully. "She's with her partner, his son and the woman with the dog. They appear to be waiting."  
  
"For the unicorn?"  
  
Ian rolled his eyes in the dark and wished that just once he could get away with the kind of smart-assed remark that Sara would reply with.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Well, what are they doing there?" Irons said petulantly. He sounded like a child required to share his favorite toy.  
  
"Possibly the Witchblade…?" Ian could only hazard a guess, but he was well aware of the interference of the Blade in the web of the Wielder's life. He and his master, by virtue of their close association with the Witchblade, represented major supports in that web. If Kenneth Irons sought a unicorn and Sara showed up by chance, Ian understood that it was no coincidence. Everything was connected, however inconvenient it might be for one, two or all three of them at any given point in time.  
  
"If they're waiting then the unicorn hasn't come yet tonight. I intend to catch the unicorn tonight, Ian. Sara, indeed the entire New York City Police Department, cannot stop me."  
  
Ian nodded and moved forward, toward the clearing and Sara and the unicorn.  
  
~WB~  
  
Sara turned around when Fritz, Lonnie's absolutely adorable dog, bounded away suddenly, yapping happily.  
  
Nottingham entered the clearing, bending in one swift motion to pick up the dog and bring it to his chest. The dog wriggled happily and let Nottingham scratch its tummy in greeting.  
  
Behind Nottingham, Kenneth Irons dragged himself out of the woods with a look of disgruntlement. His normally impeccable hair stood out in disarray and his cheek bore several scratches from branches and brambles. Clutched in his hands, he carried an exquisite bridle of gold that could have but one purpose; Sara's heart sank in her chest because she knew that she was right about Nottingham's presence in the park this afternoon.  
  
Nottingham bent over and put the dog down, then stood up and assumed the only position Sara had ever seen him in.  
  
Irons advanced with a smug smile, gathering the bridle in his left hand as he extended his right to Danny and Lonnie in turn. His charm was overwhelming, even Mikey was caught up by it, but Sara remained resolutely immune. She looked at Nottingham as Irons introduced himself. He seemed subdued, even more so than usual, not moving from that spot where he first came out of the trees.  
  
Sara disentangled herself from the small group and went to him.  
  
He refused to look up, staring at the grass under his feet as though it was the single most wondrous sight he had ever beheld.  
  
"You brought him here." It wasn't a question, merely a statement of fact. He made no answer. She sighed and looked at Danny and Lonnie as they talked with Irons about inconsequential things. "You know what he wants to do?"  
  
"Of course," he said, his voice low and mournful.  
  
Surprised, Sara looked at him again. "Then why?"  
  
"Sara," he said by way of explanation with only the slightest hint of reproach in his tone. She understood though. He had had no choice. At least that's what he would have her believe. Sara believed in nothing if she didn't believe in free will. She simply couldn't understand what it was that held Nottingham in Irons' thrall.  
  
"What makes him think he can capture a unicorn in the first place?"  
  
"He has need of it and he has the bridle."  
  
"So that's alright?" Despite herself, Sara was getting angry though she knew it would do absolutely no good. "Mr. Irons wants it and Mr. Irons always gets what he wants?"  
  
Again, Nottingham made no answer, only stared at the grass that much harder.  
  
Inexplicably infuriated, Sara threw up her hands and left him standing there.  
  
~WB~  
  
Lonnie watched the by-play between Sara and Nottingham out of the corner of her eye. Even as Mr. Irons made small talk with Danny and her, she winced when Sara turned away, obviously angry. He raised his head and watched her walk away. Then he seemed to catch Mr. Irons' eye and, looking back down at the ground, ducked his head again.  
  
Sara was right. Kenneth Irons was not a nice guy. He exuded charm and savoir-faire but it was all false and grated on her nerves like tin foil against a filling. She'd known plenty of guys like this, the ones who thought they were Masters of the Universe and deserved what they wanted simply because of what hung between their legs.  
  
And what Kenneth Irons wanted right now was the unicorn. She looked at the bridle in his hand and thought that it was one of the vilest things she'd ever seen. The unicorn should never be bridled like a horse, a slave to any man. She shuddered at the thought of those cold hands touching the unicorn. 


	7. Part Seven

~WB~  
  
Ian heard the boy cry out and looked up.  
  
On the other side of the clearing, the unicorn, aglow with its own silvery light here in the darkness under the trees, emerged from the woods and stood still a moment at the top of the knoll.  
  
It was as Lonnie had said. There were no words to describe its beauty. The unicorn was not white, nor silver but some magical amalgamation of the two. Its long face bore a timeless expression of wisdom and knowledge hard won. Huge velvet eyes pierced Ian's soul; he fell into them and willingly lost himself there. The horn shone with a light all its own, more lustrous than ivory. He saw the creature's tail switch along its flanks as it took in the transfixed figures gathered on the other side of the pool.  
  
All except the boy, who ran forward into the pool, not heeding the water or its depth. Suddenly, he floundered and then disappeared beneath the surface.  
  
Woo cried out his son's name even as Ian moved forward, slipping beneath the cool, clear water, surprised by the depth in the center. He felt the water tug at his coat but Ian was a strong, confident swimmer. He reached down into the silvery depths and grabbed the flailing boy. In seconds they broke the surface of the water, the child gasping and sputtering as Ian passed him to his father, who stood waist deep in the pool and grasped his son's outstretched hands and pulled him close, stroking his hair and murmuring his name, assuring himself that the boy was all right.  
  
Behind Woo, Sara, Lonnie and Irons stood at the edge of the water and stared at beyond Ian. Treading water, Ian turned himself and gasped.  
  
The unicorn stood knee-deep in water, not more than four feet from Ian on the opposite side of the pool. He realized now that the unicorn had been the source of the light that had led him to the boy so quickly. Now it stood and looked down at him, its eyes wide and dark. Ian watched as a single crystal teardrop formed and rolled down its cheek. The tear hung for a moment on the edge of the unicorn's velvet lip and then fell into the water. The clearing was so still that Ian could hear the musical ping the tear made as it merged with the pool.  
  
Ian barely felt the pull of the water in his boots as he looked up into the unicorn's face. His heavy clothing, water-logged now, began dragging him down until only his face remained above water. He heard Irons call his name, his voice distorted by the water that covered Ian's ears, so distorted that Ian imagined he heard concern there in his master's voice. Suddenly tired, he gave into the irresistible pull and slipped beneath the surface. His hands went up automatically but the weight of his coat was too great to resist. Looking up at the unicorn, refracted and distorted through the glassy underside of the water's smooth surface, Ian closed his eyes and resigned himself to his fate.  
  
Then he felt something graze the side of his hand. Assuming someone had extended a branch, he wrapped his hand around the offered lifeline and let himself be pulled out of the depths of the pool.  
  
Except that he wasn't being pulled backwards toward Irons and the others.  
  
He broke the surface of the water and gasped, filling his lungs. Hesitantly, he opened his eyes.  
  
He held the unicorn's horn in his gloved hand. Incredulous, he watched the unicorn step back until he felt ground beneath his knees. He let go of the horn and knelt before the unicorn, water lapping at his chest.  
  
It stood silent and still, ankle deep in the pool, watching Ian and Ian alone, holding Ian's eyes with its own.  
  
Finally, Ian stood, amazed by the weight of his coat and the water-logged gloves on his hands. He stood before the unicorn, waiting.  
  
Ian Nottingham was very good at waiting.  
  
The unicorn bent its head and touched the tip of its horn to Ian's chest. Ian felt a warmth spread out from that spot, a warmth that filled every corner of his body and soul with a cleansing white light that chased away the shadows and demons from the hidden corners, doubts and fears that had been his constant companions his entire life.  
  
After an eternal moment, the unicorn broke contact and Ian gasped, again filling his lungs with life-giving oxygen.  
  
Without thinking, without breaking eye contact with the unicorn that stood and waited, Ian removed the ring on his right hand. When he pulled it over the soaking leather of his glove, he hesitated a moment, unsure. The unicorn seemed to nod almost imperceptibly. Ian removed the glove and held out his hand in front of him, palm forward, fingers reaching but not moving.  
  
Slowly, the unicorn stepped forward. Bowing its head ever so slightly, it touched its velvet nose to Ian's trembling fingers.  
  
He heard the gasps behind him but Ian had eyes and ears only for the unicorn.  
  
Ian turned his hand and ran his palm up the unicorn's long face as the unicorn pushed forward, each hungry for the touch of the other. Like silk was the unicorn's coat, warm and soft with almost no friction. Ian tangled his long fingers in the mane as the unicorn stepped close and dropped its head over his shoulder. Ian's arms crossed over the extended neck and pulled the unicorn close to him, burying his face in the warm, solid flesh.  
  
How long they stood like that Ian never knew. Time simply stopped and waited for them. Waited for the unicorn to drink its fill of one pure touch that asked for nothing in return. Waited for the man to know his worth as he made the unicorn strong once more.  
  
When Ian heard the unicorn nicker softly in his ear, he pulled his arms down and let the unicorn step back and away. It had changed. Its eyes were no longer bottomless pools of sorrow. Yes, sadness remained; the unicorn was immortal, after all, and had seen too much not to know sorrow. But, too, there was a joy and a love renewed, a light that gleamed like a beacon, a light that transformed the unicorn and made it too lovely to behold.  
  
Suddenly, it rose on its hind legs and pawed the air in front of Ian. Then it turned and vaulted to the top of the bank that led back into the woods. It turned and looked back at Ian who raised his bare right hand in farewell when it turned and bounded back into myth and legend.  
  
Ian brought his hand down and bowed his head, looking at his long fingers and reflected on the gift he had received.  
  
Remembering the others suddenly, Ian turned to the other side of the pool, a distance of less than a hundred feet but the chasm between was too deep to be crossed.  
  
He couldn't go back.  
  
He looked at Irons, who had dropped the bridle unheeded at his feet. His master appeared transformed, touched by the beauty of the unicorn. Ian knew love but the devotion that had bound him to Kenneth Irons had dissolved with the unicorn's touch. For the first time in his life, Ian felt free; as a gift bestowed by the unicorn, he couldn't simply give it up.  
  
Sara.  
  
He loved her still, but he knew she would never love him in return, not the way he wanted or needed. Suddenly, he was aware that he deserved better than to pine for a woman who through no fault of her own would never return his devotion. If he left there would be no tears, so nothing held him here.  
  
~WB~  
  
Kenneth watched his creation touch the unicorn and become something else. The change was subtle but when Ian turned around, Kenneth knew a loss he'd never imagined he would ever feel. This boy was now a man and he would never return to his father's side. Already Kenneth mourned, but as Ian raised his hand in silent farewell, he felt a new pride at what he had inadvertently created.  
  
~WB~  
  
Sara watched Nottingham turn around, amazed by the transformation. A single touch, a timeless moment and Ian Nottingham had become something else. A new creature graced the world with its presence tonight.  
  
As he disappeared into the woods, Sara whispered, "Good luck, Ian."  
  
~fin~ 


End file.
